Israeli Knesset approves bill paving way for Jewish-only Al-Quds

View of the assembly hall of the Knesset, during the opening of the winter session, October 31, 2016. photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Israeli regime’s legislation body Knesset in a late-night debate approved a bill that enacts stiff new obstacles to any potential land-for-peace deal involving al-Quds (Jerusalem), while also easing the way to rid the city of several overwhelmingly Palestinian neighborhoods.

The bill passed with 64 votes in favor and 52 against at 3:00 am on Tuesday stipulates that a majority of 80 Knesset members of 120-member Knesset will be required to any transfer of territories from occupied al-Quds within the framework of any potential diplomatic agreement.

Tel Aviv regime says the whole al-Quds belongs to Jewish state, but the international community views the ancient city’s eastern sector as occupied land and the Palestinians consider it their future capital.

The new legislation would also reduce al-Quds’ Palestinian population by a third.

A member of Regime’s Knesset, Esawi Freige, blamed the bill as “a race law” saying it was meant to cleanse al-Quds of its Arab residents.

According to Freige, after the Israeli regime “chose to erect a wall within Jerusalem, now it is seeking to remove 100,000 of its residents from the city.”

Areas impacted by the bill are located on the far side of the concrete separation wall which Israeli regime installed a decade ago. They include Kafr Akab, Shuafat refugee camp and parts of Walaja, Sawahra and a-Sheik Sa’ad.

Even though their residents pay taxes to the al-Quds municipality, Palestinian areas outside the barrier are already “twilight zones” of neglect and lawlessness.

Residents in those areas have been effectively abandoned by the al-Quds municipality, and have found it ever harder to access the rest of the city.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the residency permits of more than 14,000 Palestinians, forcing them to leave al-Quds.

The provocative bill came two days after s the regime’s ruling party Likud has called for the annexation of illegal settlements in occupied West Bank and unlimited construction of settlements in the area.

Netanyahu’s Likud Party voted Sunday to support the annexation of illegal settlements in Occupied West Bank.

“Fifty years after the liberation of Judea and Samaria, and with them Jerusalem (al-Quds), our eternal capital, the Likud Central Committee calls on Likud’s elected leaders to work to allow unhindered construction and to extend Israeli law and sovereignty in all the areas of liberated settlement in Judea and Samaria,” resolution adopted by Netanyahu’s party read, as cited by The Times of Israel.

Israeli regime occupied the West Bank, including al-Quds, in the Six-Day War of 1967. It later annexed al-Quds in a move never recognized by the international community.

“The time has come to express our Biblical right to the land,” Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told a meeting of Likud’s Central Committee, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli settlements are deemed illegal under international law and widely seen as the main obstacle to peace.

More than 600,000 Zionist settlers live in the occupied West Bank and annexed al-Quds among 2.9 million Palestinians, with frequent outbreaks of violence.